Between the Spirit and the Dust

Chapter Thirteen

Max paced back and forth as I had filled him in on the things that had happened in our trip to Brown University. We had been speaking in low tones, so that Jenna couldn’t hear what we were talking about if she walked by. 

Evie had told Jenna and Max about what Helena Davies had seen as well as about Collins staying behind to find security footage. But she hadn’t told them about her suspicion that he was targeting Paras, people with abilities like ours.

 “Paras?” he’d echoed.

“Yeah, Paras,” I’d replied.  “Or at least that's what I’m calling us, them, people with supernatural abilities. I don’t know if there’s any like special name for us… Evie didn’t say.”

I was starting to think that it was a mistake telling him everything though, given his constant pacing as he tried to process what I’d told him. But if I didn’t tell him I was going to burst with all the information we were concealing from the Feds. Given how long I’d kept things bottled up in me, it felt good to share and to let someone in. 

Finally, he stopped and announced, “I need coffee to think. Is there a Starbucks nearby?”

“You want to drink that now? But I think it’s nearly time for dinner— 

“Okay, so let’s go out and eat instead,” he interrupted.

“Go out and eat?” I repeated, like it was a foreign concept.

“Yeah…unless you want to eat the same takeout food we’ve been having all week?” Max stuck out his tongue like he wanted to puke just thinking about it. “Let’s go get something to eat outside. 

It was true that I was getting really tired of takeout. That was all we’d been having ever since we’d arrived at Washington because nobody cooked. Evie had muttered something about burning water and Mom’s cooking gene had bypassed me. Collins and Jenna had refused to do the job. Max had kept conspicuously quiet and I had a niggling suspicion that it was because he could cook, just that he didn’t want to be stuck in the kitchen during our entire time here 

“Well, okay then. Should I ask Evie and Jenna if they’re ready?"

Max gave me a strange look. “I meant just the two of us. We can't discuss any of this if Jenna's around and I think Evie's waiting for Collins to come back so that they can talk."

“Oh…right." This would be the first time that it was just Max and me for dinner. I asked, awkwardly, "Um, should we get going then?"

“Alright! Let’s go!” He hopped up and I laughed to myself at how excited he was at not having to eat more takeout. “I saw a quiet café at the corner just now. Let’s go there!”

“Sure.” I tried to sound nonchalant but I could feel my palms starting to sweat. There was no reason for me to be nervous because we were just two friends going out for dinner. People did that all the time. 

***

“Max?”

“Yes, Ems?”

 “The café doesn’t look so quiet now.”

 “Yeah, it doesn’t,” he said morosely.

That was an understatement. Business was bustling at the café and the lane for the queue snaked from the corner it occupied all the way until the end of the street. There was no way we could discuss anything now with so many people around.

“Should we get sandwiches instead? Then we can talk and eat in the park,” I suggested. Max was still an expression on his face that could be best described as a pout. Trying not to show how funny I found this whole situation, I continued, “You could even get a coffee, c’mon."